THE AFL has defended umpire Shaun Ryan's decision to pay a free kick against Richmond defender Alex Rance for throwing the ball back in a "demonstrative" manner.
The incident occurred in the final quarter of the Tigers' loss to West Coast at the MCG last Friday night.
Rance was denied a mark with 16 minutes remaining in the match and was tackled to the ground by Eagle Josh Kennedy.
Angry at not being paid the mark, Rance threw the ball back with force to umpire Ryan who had called a ball up.
While Ryan caught the ball, he immediately penalised the Richmond star and awarded a free kick to the Eagles.
Head AFL umpires coach Hayden Kennedy told AFL.com.au the manner in which Rance threw the ball back to Ryan was akin to verbal abuse.
"We're more than happy that's a free kick," Kennedy said.
"Shaun Ryan the umpire on the day felt that this was a very demonstrative action from Alex. I know [the throw] doesn't look terribly hard from the slow motion vision, but we're certainly in a situation where we've got community in mind.
"We can't have players been demonstrative toward umpires whether it's through their body language or the way they throw balls back."
The free kick against Rance has drawn plenty of criticism.
Former Adelaide coach Brenton Sanderson describing the incident as "too precious" but agreed that umpires should be respected.
"I do agree there is a level of respect that we have to continually show the umpires," he told AFL.com.au.
"I think Rance was just a little bit upset and threw it back with a little bit too much force potentially, but I don't think the free kick was there."
Rance was involved in another controversial decision when he ducked his head before he was tackled by West Coast forward Josh Kennedy. The Tiger defender was awarded the free kick for high contact but the umpires coach said Rance was fortunate."From this camera angle [it appears he ducked]," Hayden Kennedy said. "A play-on call could possibly be the better result based on that vision."
Hayden Kennedy said another decision against Richmond defender Troy Chaplin for blocking Nic Naitanui at a stoppage was incorrect.
The officiating umpire made the assumption that Naitanui was competing in the ruck contest despite West Coast's other ruckman, Callum Sinclair, clearly going for the hit-out against Ivan Maric.
Sanderson said it could be time the AFL made a rule change to stop the third-man up at a stoppage.
"I'm not sure what the rule change needs to be though ... It's a tough one for the umpires but I think we have to have a look at it at the end of the season and make an adjustment."
